Mango's Journal

MangoTux MangoTux Logging since November 2025
2025-12-30
Challenges
Better Abs Challenge - Day 30 / 30 :v:
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 12 / 30
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 12 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Decline 25 x 3
Reverse curls: 12 x 4, 10lbs

Tomorrow will be a lighter day, and then I'll be starting the following challenges in January:
- 1000 Calf Raises
- Daily Cardio
- Better Core
- Yoga Abs
I've scouted ahead, and I don't think I'll be running into any issues with overlapping difficulty towards the end. The hardest days will probably be around 1/15 and 1/16, since I'll be wrapping up the tricep dips and negative pull-ups. If, however, I complain about this during January, you are encouraged to mock me with a quote I think about frequently:
It is a painful thing
To look at your own trouble and know
That you yourself and no one else has made it
- Sophocles, Ajax
Click to expand...
Though, honestly, most of the difficulty is from trying to do everything in one go, as soon as I wake up. It won't be the end of the world if I spread the challenges out throughout the day.

Happy Tuesday!
 
Laura Rainbow Dragon said:
:hophop::heartsit:
What kind of owl?
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A barred owl! It looked like slightly smaller than a full adult, so I think it was the same bird as the baby I saw earlier this year in the same area:
1767214147898.png
(Photo from May)

I've been seeing a lot of reports in the area for short-eared owls, so I was curious if my local patch hosted them at all. Still unsure on that front, but that just means I need to spend more time out there!
 
2026-01-01
Challenges
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 14 / 30
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 14 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 1 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 1 / 30
Better Core - Day 1 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 1 / 30
Here we go!

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Decline 25 x 3
Reverse curls: 12 x 4, 15lbs

Like most years, 2025 had its ups and downs. I don't really aim for New Year's resolutions, but I had an underlying goal to be more active and present in the things I do. In broad strokes, here are some things I'm proud of and hope to continue going into 2026:
- Joined two local birding/ornithology groups, and have done volunteer work with both
- Took vacation days to travel around the state and go on walks at different parks, trails, forests, and lakes
- Worked in the yard to build a native plant garden, which created the opportunity to chat more with our neighbors
- Started therapy, and became more comfortable talking to others about issues I'm struggling with
- Kept up my daily push-up streak, while steadily increasing the effort required
- Switched to a 100% plant-based diet and started doing weekly meal prep for lunch and dinner
- (As a result of the above) lost 15 pounds between August and December, resulting in dropping below 200 pounds for the first time in over a decade
- Tried more exercise routines and found several that are (to me) sustainable, thorough, and engaging
- Started using these forums, which have been great for accountability, organizing my thoughts, and getting inspired. Generally, this has been a really positive experience and I'm thankful you're all here
I really couldn't have predicted most of these 365 days ago. It will be interesting to see where things are at a year from now - there will always be things to recognize, improve, and adapt, and it's all part of the journey.

Happy Thursday! I hope you all have a great start to 2026.
 
2026-01-02
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 15 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 2 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 2 / 30
Better Core - Day 2 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 15 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 2 / 30
I'm organizing these based on the order I work through them. The negative pull-ups don't have a specified rest interval, so I'm spacing them throughout the other exercises.

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Decline 25 x 3
Reverse curls: 12 x 4, 15lbs

Walked around a lake this morning while carrying a spotting scope. It's cold outside. Happy Friday!
 
2026-01-04
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 17 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 4 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 4 / 30
Better Core - Day 4 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 17 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 4 / 30
There's something more visually appealing about "Day 1" and "Day 14", compared to "Day 4" and "Day 17". I think 1 feels like an honorary even number, but 4 and 17 clash quite a bit. Is this the sort of thing people have opinions about, or is it just me?

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Raised Leg 30 x 3
Reverse curls: 10 x 2, 20lbs
Sets and reps were lower today, partially because of the higher weight and partially because I do this pretty quickly after finishing the negative pull-ups. Tomorrow, I'll find out if I have better endurance on dead hang days.

Stealth Challenge Check-In
These are both a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 15 / 30
Push-Up Streak - Day 19 / 30

My meal prep/planning held up through the holidays, though I did allocate one dinner/breakfast to go to a restaurant and bring home some leftovers. We went to a new Indian restaurant, where I had malai kofta and Peshwari naan (four of those would certainly be insane).

Happy Sunday!
 
MangoTux said:
There's something more visually appealing about "Day 1" and "Day 14", compared to "Day 4" and "Day 17". I think 1 feels like an honorary even number, but 4 and 17 clash quite a bit. Is this the sort of thing people have opinions about, or is it just me?
Click to expand...
Some people experience numbers as specific colours, shapes, spatial positions, and even personalities. So I don't think it's just you.
Some numbers have strong cultural associations as well. (e.g.: Some cultures consider the number 13 unlucky. In other cultures, the number 4 is unlucky/associated with death.)
 
@Laura Rainbow Dragon Oh, yeah, I suppose synesthesia is a fairly straightforward response to my question!
@TopNotch Nothing against them as dates, for sure!
I ended up spending more time thinking about this than I expected. I like to play around with numbers as a way to keep my mind active on repetitive tasks like driving or counting reps. When driving, it's things like prime factorization of mile marker signs. For exercise, it's a steady stream of "One twelfth done", "Halfway to halfway", "If I were doing day 30 of this challenge, I'd be 80% done". Four is a nice square number, while seventeen is kind of clunky in terms of subdivision (not to mention it's 4^2+1, so it's just out of sync). If I were to personify them, I'd say they're just going different directions in life.
2026-01-05
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 18 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 5 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 5 / 30
Better Core - Day 5 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 18 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 5 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Raised Leg 30 x 3
Reverse curls: 8 x 3, 20lbs

Back to work after a decent amount of time off. I feel like it was a fairly productive break, but it's nice to get back into a routine. Happy Monday!
 
2026-01-06
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 19 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 6 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 6 / 30
Better Core - Day 6 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 19 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 6 / 30
Observation: I'm able to work through this set of exercises much quicker than the alternating day's set. It makes sense, as Negative Pull-Up, Better Core, and Yoga Abs all take less time. However, the negative pull-ups spread throughout the other exercises makes this a rewarding set of things to complete. Since I'm able to finish these a lot quicker, I'm also able to spend a bit more time on making breakfast afterward.

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Raised Leg 30 x 3
When I was setting this variant list up, I only did a few push-ups of each type to see what I was capable of. The small sample size led me astray, as I assumed these were comparable to stacked push-ups. I am finding that this is not the case, but I refuse to yield (for right now, at least).

Happy Tuesday!
 
2026-01-08
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 21 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 8 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 8 / 30
Better Core - Day 8 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 21 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 8 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Raised Leg 30 x 3

A bit of a step backward on the food end of things. I made chili for dinner this week, which tempted me to get some cinnamon rolls. We've also got D&D tonight, so there will be some pizza. I'm giving myself a slight allowance, though, as we haven't had a session in some time and this may be our last one for awhile. Still, after today I'm back to being more diligent about extraneous food.
Happy Thursday!
 
2026-01-09
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 22 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 9 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 9 / 30
Better Core - Day 9 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 22 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 9 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Raised Leg 30 x 3

I noticed that I just kinda dropped the additional dumbbell work over the past week. Work picked back up, and I suppose that was enough of a change to the routine? Either way, I think I've got a decent amount on my plate for right now. I'm getting closer to wrapping up the Negative Pull-Up and Tricep Dip challenges, and then I'll look into some supplemental things as a way to shift into the mindset for Push Pull Legs, which is my main February plan.

Happy Friday!
 
2026-01-11
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 24 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 11 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 11 / 30
Better Core - Day 11 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 24 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 11 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Roll day! The dice have determined I'll be doing dragon push-ups this week. We'll see if the odd number bothers me enough to adjust it.
Daily Push-Up Variants: Dragon 25 x 3
These are both a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 22 / 30
Push-Up Streak - Day 26 / 30: +10 standard push-ups on top of variants

Happy Sunday!
 
MangoTux said:
Asan aside, I was diagnosed with ADHD last week. There are so many things I've done (or failed to do) that I've always considered moral, personal failures. It's freeing to know there's a reason behind them, and that resources exist to help navigate those with precision beyond a vague "why can't I do what I know I should be doing?". As a result, I've been doing a lot of introspection about challenges I've faced -- hobbies I've dropped out of nowhere, tasks at work that feel insurmountable, home projects that give me anxiety every time I walk past them -- and have spent time breaking down my feelings and experiences into something actionable. I know I want to exercise. I know I want to eat healthier. I know I'll regret the impulsive snacks. I know I can be successful in these pursuits for short periods of time (at the very least). My focus, then, is to find methods of translating these pieces of knowledge about myself into sustainable, actionable goals - even if that means revisiting things that haven't worked in the past. Hopefully, viewed through a new lens, I'll not only understand what things do/don't work, but why they are that way for me. That way, failures become a data point; not an indictment of my character.
Click to expand...
Very belated response to this but I'm so glad you've had this happen. It mirrors my experience a lot - I considered my difficulties to be a moral failing and laziness and I beat myself up over it again and again.

It's night and day the difference between now and then - how insane is it being able to decide to do something and then... actually do it? Is this what normal people feel? Like trying to describe it when someone asks you it sounds so stupid, like why wouldn't you just do something if you wanted to do it?

I went through the diagnosis stage about a couple of months before you did after my wife had been pushing me to go and get checked out for about seven or eight years (ironically if I had been diagnosed/treated earlier it wouldn't have taken me seven or eight years to sort it out).

Glad you're doing better now.

MangoTux said:
I'm really fortunate, for sure! It certainly helps that I only actively got into birding this year, so I'm still on my first full calendar year of actually paying attention to the things around me.
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Birding is such a cool hobby! I go out and look at birds while hiking (look at me speaking in the present tense - have done it maybe once since my son was born haha) and occasionally write down "I saw a brown bird" but until recently I didn't start remembering the names of species. My brother's really into it - has the fancy binoculars and everything.

MangoTux said:
I have my hands outstretched to play through that part, and I think it's been helping with the recovery after gripping the bar.
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What a great idea! I don't think I could convince the social club at my work to put a piano in the gym but I will keep this in mind for if I ever get a pull-up bar at home!

MangoTux said:
- Switched to a 100% plant-based diet
Click to expand...
Wooooooo!

MangoTux said:
I like to play around with numbers as a way to keep my mind active on repetitive tasks like driving or counting reps. When driving, it's things like prime factorization of mile marker signs. For exercise, it's a steady stream of "One twelfth done", "Halfway to halfway", "If I were doing day 30 of this challenge, I'd be 80% done".
Click to expand...
Are you me?

Admittedly I do it less nowadays (with the exception of "3/5ths of the way through this set... now three quarters through"). I used to start with a number and just keep doubling it until I couldn't keep track of the digits. Prime factorisation of mile marker signs (or km marker signs over here) is a good one! I know what I'll be doing next road trip.
 
@agc Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my scattered posts! I sincerely appreciate it.
It was nice seeing so many people on the video meet-up! The difficulty in maintaining fitness routines stood out to me as a bit of a throughline from the discussions, and I kind of want to ramble about some thoughts I have on the topic (as they pertain to me, at least).
Especially when starting out, exercise and nutrition are both long-term plans. It's a bit... optimistic? to expect a complete body transformation in a week. Eating well and building muscle are both things that require a solid, incremental, and consistent framework. I don't think it's very common to see a spike in progress between consecutive days, so it's very much a gradual change that's hard to acknowledge in the moment.
On the other end of things, millions of years of evolution have conditioned us to find short-term optimizations during periods of stress. Animals and plants have mechanisms like this - some things change diets, some dip into stored resources, and some enter periods of torpor (among tons of other things - biology is really cool, and I'm only mentioning broad strategies). This strategy makes sense, since one can't really focus on the future if one can't make it through the present.
Unfortunately, this mechanism is a strong argument for not sticking with health improvements - when feeling stressed or tired, it's easier to have a quick boost by indulging in junk food or taking a day off than it is to think about some fitness goal that's still months or years off (There are a lot of "tomorrows"). For me, at least, my significant improvements in consistency came from finding short-term things that I could focus on, while largely keeping any sort of end goal on the horizon, in a state of "If I make it there, cool. If not, I've still enjoyed the journey". Of note, these are some of the things that have stood out to me as daily and weekly things I look forward to, and get enjoyment out of:
  • Logging my daily progress here. Since I started writing my log, I've been much more consistent about exercising in the morning, so that I can get this written during the day. I used to do things over lunch, or just try to do 10 push-ups right before bed.
  • Seeing everybody's progress here on the Hive. It's inspiring and a great chance to stay engaged by supporting people, and because everybody's at different stages and abilities, it's easy to get get some perspective on things I used to struggle with, or things that I still can't do. There's a daily reminder that progress is currently happening, and that I'm not alone in experiencing it.
  • Eating vegetarian. That decision shifted my mentality from "I can grab a quick breakfast at the gas station" to "I can't guarantee the gas station will have something I can eat" to "I should just cook my meals at home" to "I'll research a set of recipes that I can make in bulk, taste good, and cover basic nutrients" to "Oh, I guess storing things in these jars means I'm portioning things out just below my TDEE".
I certainly still have room to improve on some things, but progress is all about identifying which things work, which don't, and trying to understand the underlying 'why'. To me, taking things day-by-day is a strong "why" that I resonate with, and this site and the people here are a strong part of that. Thank you.
2026-01-12
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 25 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 12 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 12 / 30
Better Core - Day 12 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 25 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 12 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Dragon 25 x 3
These are both a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 23 / 30
Push-Up Streak - Day 27 / 30: +15 standard push-ups on top of variants

Happy Monday!
 
2026-01-13
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 26 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 13 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 13 / 30
Better Core - Day 13 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 26 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 13 / 30
Thinking ahead, Friday might be pretty hectic. Since these are all 30-day challenges, I'm considering delaying either the Day 26 or Day 13 exercises if I can't get to everything, so at the very least I'd still be on target for finishing everything by the end of January.

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Dragon 25 x 3
These are both a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 24 / 30
Push-Up Streak - Day 28 / 30

Happy Tuesday!
 
2026-01-14
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 27 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 14 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 14 / 30
Better Core - Day 14 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 27 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 14 / 30
Weird to think the negative pull-ups only have one additional rep before I'm done. With the quantity, they're certainly not getting any easier, but I feel like my form has certainly improved throughout this. I had considered doing the Flex Hang challenge after this, but I don't know if I'm ready for another endurance-based challenge. Instead, I think I'll see how Touch The Bar fits into my plans.

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Dragon 25 x 4
These are both a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 25 / 30
Push-Up Streak - Day 29 / 30: I did an extra set of dragon push-ups to hit 100 total.

Happy Wednesday!
 
2026-01-15
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 28 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 15 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 15 / 30
Better Core - Day 15 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 28 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 15 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Dragon 25 x 3
These are both a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 26 / 30
Push-Up Streak - Day 30 / 30 :v:
In addition to the variants, I did 55 consecutive standard push-ups for the last day of this (what started as a stealth) challenge.

Happy Thursday!
 
Well done with the push ups!

Push Up Adam Sandler GIF
 
@Jaga @Fremen @CODawn @TopNotch @GentleOx @Anek Thank you!
2026-01-16
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 29 / 30
1000 Calf Raises - Day 16 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 16 / 30
Better Core - Day 16 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 29 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 16 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Dragon 25 x 3
This is a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 27 / 30

Yep, ended up being a busy day, but everything is going well. Wasn't able to get to exercises until this evening, but I managed to get to them!
Happy Friday!
 
2026-01-17
Challenges
Negative Pull-Up Challenge - Day 30 / 30 :v:
1000 Calf Raises - Day 17 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 17 / 30
Better Core - Day 17 / 30
Tricep Dips Challenge - Day 30 / 30 :v:
Yoga Abs - Day 17 / 30
Not sad to see the tricep dip holds go. As far as the negative pull-ups, I'll take a few days off before starting Touch The Bar as a general routine.

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Dragon 25 x 3
This is a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 28 / 30

Happy Saturday!
 
Thank you @UKmanUK @CODawn @Fremen @TopNotch , and to everybody that reacted!
2026-01-18
Challenges
1000 Calf Raises - Day 18 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 18 / 30
Better Core - Day 18 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 18 / 30
Following yesterday, this felt like a rest day. Of the things I do on even-numbered days, jumping jacks are really the only thing that has ever given me trouble (looking at the ornaments and snowball fight).

Routines and Workouts
Roll Day! The dice have determined I'll be doing wide grip push-ups.
Daily Push-Up Variants: Wide Grip 30 x 3
This is a result of daily totals on my push-up variants
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 29 / 30

Happy Sunday!!
 
2026-01-19
Challenges
1000 Calf Raises - Day 19 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 19 / 30
Better Core - Day 19 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 19 / 30

Routines and Workouts
Daily Push-Up Variants: Wide Grip 30 x 3
50 Push-Ups a Day - Day 30 / 30 :v:
This didn't start out as a standalone challenge; I just picked it up along the way by proxy of my typical push-up work. Still, it's now one less thing to type!

I hope you all have a great start to the week! (That is, if you consider Monday to be the start of a week. If not, I hope the week has been going well!)
 
2026-01-22
1000 Calf Raises - Day 22 / 30
Daily Cardio - Day 22 / 30
Better Core - Day 22 / 30
Yoga Abs - Day 22 / 30
Daily Push-Up Variants: Wide Grip 30 x 3

I'm still enforcing a week away from any significant pull-up work, but I did manage to get a bit over halfway up yesterday! When I started doing the dead hang challenge, I wasn't able to get any movement powered by my arms. That sort of progress is really great to see, even if I'm still some distance away from actual pull-ups!

Happy Thursday!
 
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